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BACKGROUND TO THE PETITION: (Addressed to Gov. Kevin Stitt and members of the Oklahoma State Pardon and Parole Board);
"Police and prosecutors believe Justin Sneed and an accomplice murdered Barry Van Treese in 1997. Sneed confessed to the crime, but it is increasingly evident police arrested the wrong accomplice. When detectives interrogated Sneed, they asked him to name his accomplice so Sneed would not “hang alone,” but Sneed never gave them a name. Instead, the police fed Sneed a name—Richard Glossip.
Sneed went along with their suggestion to avoid the death penalty and keep his real accomplice, most likely his girlfriend, off detectives’ radar. Once Sneed gave detectives the version of the story they were looking for, they stopped working the case, less than two weeks after the murder. Their brief investigation was not credible. However, Glossip’s lawyers, working pro bono since 2015, have conducted the comprehensive investigation the police never did. Their findings demand that this case be thoroughly and independently investigated before a fourth date is set to kill Mr. Glossip."
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NEW FINDINGS REPORTED IN PETITION:
"Glossip’s lawyers found a witness who was in jail with Sneed a few weeks after his arrest and heard Sneed spill the truth about the murder: It was a robbery for drug money, planned and carried out by Sneed and his girlfriend, and Richard Glossip had nothing to do with it. The attorneys found other people incarcerated with Sneed in 1997 and later who, completely independent of one another, shared the same story with verifiable details.
The legal team uncovered new evidence about Sneed's raging drug addiction — a clear motive for a robbery-turned-murder. They found witnesses who will testify that Sneed was a thief and would steal “anything not bolted down” to feed his meth habit. They also found a woman who knew Sneed’s girlfriend and will testify about the girlfriend’s escape on the night of the murder while wearing a blood-stained shirt. All these new witnesses have signed affidavits sworn under oath.
Glossip’s attorneys found forensic evidence, including fingerprints from the crime scene that were not Sneed’s, Glossip’s, or the victim’s, that have never been searched through databases. There is ample evidence a woman was in the room with Sneed during the murder, which police have ignored.
Glossip’s lawyers also had experts, including several medical examiners and two forensic accountants, look at the evidence prosecutors used at trial. They found that many of the facts the District Attorney had alleged about the crime and the motive simply were not true.
Glossip’s lawyers found paperwork showing that the police, at the request of the District Attorney’s office, destroyed critical evidence even before Richard Glossip’s second trial, including items that were inside the motel room during the murder. This has never been explained.
Also without any explanation, the District Attorney continues to ignore defense requests and withhold key evidence, including, but not limited to: All documentation of an alleged polygraph test (which the State used against Glossip at his 2014 Clemency hearing), security camera footage that has never been seen, evidence seized from Sneed’s room that might help identify the accomplice, and notes from detectives that might contradict their later reports and trial testimony.
Executing Richard Glossip in the face of this new evidence and information, and these many questions, is unjust and immoral. Glossip’s attorneys are not asking that he be freed, but only that a fully independent investigation be conducted, and a report issued, before any execution date is set. Otherwise, Oklahoma risks killing a man for a crime he did not commit.
Glossip’s supporters are respectfully calling on Governor Kevin Stitt and the State Pardon and Parole Board to order a thorough and independent investigation into this new evidence so they will have a complete understanding of the facts prior to making the critical decision on whether Richard lives or dies. Even supporters of the death penalty agree no one wants to see an innocent man killed for a crime he did not commit. The State of Oklahoma cannot afford to get this wrong.
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STORY: "Thousands sign petition pushing for review of Richard Glossip's death row case," by Reporter Rebecca Pryor, published by LOKC (Fox) on August 26, 2021.
GIST: "Thousands of Oklahomans are hoping to shine new light on a decades-old death row conviction.
Currently, more than 10,000 people have signed a new petition calling on the Governor to further examine Richard Glossip's 1997 murder-for-hire case.
Glossip is the death row inmate who was almost executed on more than one occasion when officials realized the wrong drugs were brought for his lethal injection.
Don Knight, who joined Glossip’s defense team after all of his appeals were exhausted, says as time has passed there's become mounting support to get Glossip off death row for good.
"He was at the mercy of a system that was trying to convict," said Knight, "We have more and more people all the time coming over and saying, you know, there's something really wrong with the system."
The online petition's request is also being echoed by nearly three dozen lawmakers, many of them Republicans who are actually in favor of the death penalty.
In a letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt and the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board sent back in June, the lawmakers said new evidence found by Knight's team casts serious doubts over Glossip’s conviction.
"I'm 100% confident myself that he is an innocent man that we've got on death row," said Republican Rep. Kevin McDugle, "We have had people on death row in Oklahoma before who were innocent and that's all we're saying is, let's make sure before we put this guy to death."
"We're just simply asking for, hey look at our stuff," said Knight.
Knight adds that ideally because of the vast amount of new evidence that’s been collected, an in-depth independent investigation would be granted.
However, Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board says Glossip technically already had his final day in court years ago when he was originally denied clemency. At this point, Pardon and Parole Board Director, Tom Bates says not only do they not have the authority or ability to re-open an investigation into Glossip's case, they might not even be able to give him a second clemency hearing.
"It’s not that people aren’t concerned, but there are rules and laws in place that govern the scope of the state agency’s authority," explained Bates.
FOX 25 also reached out to the Attorney General's office to ask if Glossip's case would see further review. They sent the following statement:
He’s exhausted his appeals and no new credible evidence has ever been presented to anyone involved in his case. Do you have something specific you need comment on? I’m not sure what there is to report on at this point but what you’ve laid out has no merit to it. Maybe a better story would be to ask the family and loved ones of Barry Van Treese how they feel about the misinformation being spread about this case.
"It's a story that needs to be changed and we don't want this to go down as the legacy of Oklahoma," said McDugle.
"He’s been lucky to survive three executions at this point. I don't think he's going to survive a fourth if they try again," said Knight.""
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The entire KOKC (Fox) story can be read at:
